Can't View TV While Recording

[Jonathan Bones]

I've been running the Sage trial for the past two weeks. Today, I bought the program. Now, for the first time, I cannot watch what I'm recording while it's recording. I get the following message:

There was a Playback Error in playback. Details: sage.PlaybackException: ERROR (-3,0 x80040154): There was a problem accessing the filesystem for playback.

I am quite annoyed, as I start having problems the moment I purchase the software. For all I know, I can't watch live TV at all--but I can't test this right now, as the show is (hopefully) being recorded to my hard drive. I didn't uninstall Sage, update it, or anything--all I did was plug in the license key.

I did uninstall some other PVR software from my system, though. Might it have uninstalled some shared files Sage uses?

[Opus4]

Did you also just start using service mode & your recording directory is a network location, or even a local drive using a mapped drive letter or UNC path? If so, the service can't use mapped drives & it needs to log in as a user with read/write permission to access the UNC path. Or, was it a client & the client is trying to access the path?

- Andy

[Jonathan Bones]

Negative on both accounts, I do believe. I'm just using Sage as my single-computer PVR. The only thing I did was organize already recorded shows by putting them into folders in my recording directory. Could this be having an impact on the program?

The show I was trying to watch at the time did record properly. But I can't even watch live TV while Sage isn't recording, I've discovered.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Bones

Negative on both accounts, I do believe. I'm just using Sage as my single-computer PVR. The only thing I did was organize already recorded shows by putting them into folders in my recording directory. Could this be having an impact on the program?

The show I was trying to watch at the time did record properly.

You mean you moved them into subdirectories within the recording dir? That can certainly affect things, since it only records to the top level of that dir. Import dirs will import files found in subdirs, but I'm not even sure if subdirs in a recording dri are checked for imports -- they almost certainly are not checked for recordings. In any case, it sounds like you moved the file & then tried to play it before SageTV had a chance to rescan, see that the recording was no longer there & remove it from its list.

But I can't even watch live TV while Sage isn't recording, I've discovered.

I'm not sure what might be causing that. As long as there is room to record the live TV show, it should be able to record & play it back.

I would try exiting, putting your recordings back where they were & restarting. Make sure the recording dirs are still configured in Detailed Setup -> General.

- Andy

[Jonathan Bones]

In any case, it sounds like you moved the file & then tried to play it before SageTV had a chance to rescan....

At first, all I was trying to do was view the actively recording program (which of course, I wouldn't move--not while it was recording; I imagine Windows wouldn't even let me). But I'm getting the same message now, whether I try to watch live TV or recorded programs. It seems to be the viewer itself that is affected.

I would try exiting, putting your recordings back where they were & restarting. Make sure the recording dirs are still configured in Detailed Setup -> General.

At your urging, I tried this. But there was no change. At this point, I'm thinking it would make the most sense to reinstall. Will my settings be preserved, if I do so? Or will I lose my configuration, favourites, etc.?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Bones

At this point, I'm thinking it would make the most sense to reinstall.

Probably not a bad idea, since it sounds like the issue started after uninstalling something else.

Will my settings be preserved, if I do so? Or will I lose my configuration, favourites, etc.?

As long as you don't remove the SageTV directory after you uninstall, your existing wiz.bin (database) and properties files (configuration settings) will be retained. But, you may also want to try getting rid of any .properties files & their autobackups (just move them elsewhere to keep copies), then do a complete reconfigure so you are starting fresh.

- Andy

[Paul365]

There could be a bad video file in one of the recording directories, I have had a corrupted recording cause sage to refuse to play any file or livetv because of a corrupted previous recording.